Extreme weather to blame for £1.3bn loss

The wet weather may be a sign of things to come. Picture: PA

ANDREW ARBUCKLE

ALTHOUGH the official figures will not be released until later this month, the English National Farmers Union estimates that the extreme weather has caused a staggering £1.3 billion loss in farm income in 2012 as a result of extreme weather problems.

And the union warns that might not be the final tally as many farmers currently have land under water or are facing a double-whammy of huge feed bills for their livestock.

With farmers reeling from both the physical and financial challenges from last year, union president Peter Kendall has called for fresh thinking from government on farm policy in his 2013 message to the industry.

“We know drought in the key production regions across the globe is the main driver for rocketing animal feed costs. In stark contrast, at home a wash-out summer – further compounded by a sodden autumn and winter – has hammered production.

“Climate change scientists have long predicted that agriculture will face major challenges from global warming. However, 2012 has starkly demonstrated the cost that extreme weather events can wreak on farmers and the food supply chain. Global warming is commonly thought of as a series of small, incremental temperature rises. However, there is now growing evidence that the more immediate impact – at home and abroad – will be in the form of extreme weather events.”

Kendall said the “fresh thinking” from agricultural policy makers and from the whole food supply chain should be based on ensuring that farmers adapt and thus increase resilience in food supplies.

“So how do we do this? Better relationships and sharing of risk in the supply chain will help farmers plan in these volatile and uncertain times.”

Kendall saw the appointment of the Grocery Supply Code of Practice Adjudicator in the coming months as a positive move that will help root out bad practice in the supply chain.

He was also optimistic over recent moves by retailers to create meaningful long-term relationships with farmers.

Looking to the reform of the common agricultural policy, Kendall said that while the union had never argued for the CAP to be exempt from cuts, it was important the UK government ensured its farmers were treated fairly.

“In years like 2012, it is very clear to see that the support farming receives from the CAP is an absolute lifeline to many farmers. If there is to be a reduction in these payments, it should take place evenly across Europe’s single market. Already an English dairy farmer, on a typical 100 hectare farm, receives €20,000 [£16,250] a year less than a Danish or Dutch competitor. This has to stop.

“Recently, we have heard government representatives refer to these support payments as ‘worthless’, arguing that payments should only go to environmental goals. With the possible exception of Sweden, the UK government is the only one out of 27 member state countries in the EU arguing in this way.”

To continue with this policy would have only one outcome, he said, and that was discrimination against farmers in this country.

He concluded: “As farmers look out over their sodden fields this New Year’s Day, they remain generally optimistic for the longer term, but this will be a crucial year, when the building blocks for a secure food supply and resilient farming sector are put in place.

“Our industry is well-placed to help deliver jobs and growth in 2013, but for the longer term we need fresh thinking that builds confidence and resilience for meeting one of society’s greatest challenges; feeding a growing population in a smarter, more sustainable way.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.